Series 1 > Cromwellian union

THE CROMWELLIAN UNION
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in London by October 1. A fortnight later (October 14) the
Committee appointed to meet them held its first meeting.
Its proceedings were merely formal, and the Deputies were
requested to appear the following day.1 Upon their appear¬
ance (October 15) Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie, on behalf
of his colleagues, presented their commission. The Committee
pointed out that it was signed by a portion only of the repre¬
sentatives of the Shires and Burghs sent to Edinburgh for that
purpose, and desired the Deputies to furnish a transcript of
the proceedings of that Convention.
Meanwhile the Committee passed to questions of wider
moment. The commissions granted by the late Commissioners
to the various executive Boards in Scotland, and also the order
for the assessment of LT0,000 per mensem which they had
imposed, expired upon November 1, 1652. On October 22
the Committee resolved to move Parliament for their continu¬
ance. The House remitted the matter to the Committee on
the same date,2 and on October 26 the Deputies were invited
to express their views upon it. They did so in writing;
but upon the ground that the order of Parliament did not
empower the Committee to consult the Deputies as persons
‘deputed to inform and confer’ with them, but merely as
‘ single persons,’3 the Committee refused to receive the docu-
Parliament, and therefore looked upon rather as petitioners than Commis¬
sioners ’ (Life of Robert Blair, p. 300). ‘ They returned, ’ writes Lament,
(Diary, p. 56), ‘having done litell or nothing.’
1 The Minute Book of this Committee is printed in Acts of the Parlt. Of Scot.,
vol. vi. pt. ii. pp. 789-804. AprUcis of the minutes is in the Domestic Calendars
for 1651-52, 1652-53. The preliminary business on the 14th included the
appointment of John Phelps, who had been secretary to the English Commis¬
sioners in Scotland, to act in a similar capacity to the Committee; the appoint¬
ment of eight o’clock in the morning on the days when Parliament was sitting
as the time of the ordinary meetings of the Committee; the election of White-
lock as provisional Chairman ; and a recommendation to the House to continue
the commissions of the officials in Scotland which were about to determine on
November 1.
2 Commons' Journals, vol. vii. p. 194.
s The resolution of October 22 only empowered the Committee to consult ‘ such
Persons as they shall think fit.’